Hosea 6-9

New King James Version

A Call to Repentance

6 Come,^(A) and let us return to the Lord;
For ^(B)He has torn, but ^(C)He will heal us;
He has stricken, but He will ^[a]bind us up.
²^(D)After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up,
That we may live in His sight.
³^(E)Let us know,
Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord.
His going forth is established ^(F)as the morning;
^(G)He will come to us ^(H)like the rain,
Like the latter and former rain to the earth.

Impenitence of Israel and Judah

⁴“O Ephraim, what shall I do to you?
O Judah, what shall I do to you?
For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud,
And like the early dew it goes away.
⁵Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets,
I have slain them by ^(I)the words of My mouth;
And ^[b]your judgments are like light that goes forth.
⁶For I desire ^(J)mercy^[c] and ^(K)not sacrifice,
And the ^(L)knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

⁷“But like ^[d]men they transgressed the covenant;
There they dealt treacherously with Me.
⁸^(M)Gilead is a city of evildoers
And ^[e]defiled with blood.
⁹As bands of robbers lie in wait for a man,
So the company of ^(N)priests ^(O)murder on the way to Shechem;
Surely they commit ^(P)lewdness.
¹⁰I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel:
There is the ^[f]harlotry of Ephraim;
Israel is defiled.
¹¹Also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed for you,
When I return the captives of My people.

Israel Has Rebelled Against God

7 “When I would have healed Israel,
Then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered,
And the wickedness of Samaria.
For ^(Q)they have committed fraud;
A thief comes in;
A band of robbers ^[g]takes spoil outside.
²They ^[h]do not consider in their hearts
That ^(R)I remember all their wickedness;
Now their own deeds have surrounded them;
They are before My face.
³They make a ^(S)king glad with their wickedness,
And princes ^(T)with their lies.

⁴“They^(U) are all adulterers.
Like an oven heated by a baker—
He ceases stirring the fire after kneading the dough,
Until it is leavened.
⁵In the day of our king
Princes have made him sick, ^[i]inflamed with ^(V)wine;
He stretched out his hand with scoffers.
⁶They prepare their heart like an oven,
While they lie in wait;
^[j]Their baker sleeps all night;
In the morning it burns like a flaming fire.
⁷They are all hot, like an oven,
And have devoured their judges;
All their kings have fallen.
^(W)None among them calls upon Me.

⁸“Ephraim ^(X)has mixed himself among the peoples;
Ephraim is a cake unturned.
⁹^(Y)Aliens have devoured his strength,
But he does not know it;
Yes, gray hairs are here and there on him,
Yet he does not know it.
¹⁰And the ^(Z)pride of Israel testifies to his face,
But ^(AA)they do not return to the Lord their God,
Nor seek Him for all this.

Futile Reliance on the Nations

¹¹“Ephraim^(AB) also is like a silly dove, without ^[k]sense—
^(AC)They call to Egypt,
They go to ^(AD)Assyria.
¹²Wherever they go, I will ^(AE)spread My net on them;
I will bring them down like birds of the air;
I will chastise them
^(AF)According to what their congregation has heard.

¹³“Woe to them, for they have fled from Me!
Destruction to them,
Because they have transgressed against Me!
Though ^(AG)I redeemed them,
Yet they have spoken lies against Me.
¹⁴^(AH)They did not cry out to Me with their heart
When they wailed upon their beds.

“They ^[l]assemble together for grain and new ^(AI)wine,
^[m]They rebel against Me;
¹⁵Though I disciplined and strengthened their arms,
Yet they devise evil against Me;
¹⁶They return, but not ^[n]to the Most High;
^(AJ)They are like a treacherous bow.
Their princes shall fall by the sword
For the ^(AK)cursings of their tongue.
This shall be their derision ^(AL)in the land of Egypt.

The Apostasy of Israel

8 “Set the ^[o]trumpet to your mouth!
He shall come ^(AM)like an eagle against the house of the Lord,
Because they have transgressed My covenant
And rebelled against My law.
²^(AN)Israel will cry to Me,
‘My God, ^(AO)we know You!’
³Israel has rejected the good;
The enemy will pursue him.

⁴“They^(AP) set up kings, but not by Me;
They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them.
From their silver and gold
They made idols for themselves—
That they might be cut off.
⁵Your ^[p]calf ^[q]is rejected, O Samaria!
My anger is aroused against them—
^(AQ)How long until they attain to innocence?
⁶For from Israel is even this:
A ^(AR)workman made it, and it is not God;
But the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.

⁷“They^(AS) sow the wind,
And reap the whirlwind.
The stalk has no bud;
It shall never produce meal.
If it should produce,
^(AT)Aliens would swallow it up.
⁸^(AU)Israel is swallowed up;
Now they are among the Gentiles
^(AV)Like a vessel in which is no pleasure.
⁹For they have gone up to Assyria,
Like ^(AW)a wild donkey alone by itself;
Ephraim ^(AX)has hired lovers.
¹⁰Yes, though they have hired among the nations,
Now ^(AY)I will gather them;
And they shall ^[r]sorrow a little,
Because of the ^[s]burden of ^(AZ)the king of princes.

¹¹“Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin,
They have become for him altars for sinning.
¹²I have written for him ^(BA)the great things of My law,
But they were considered a strange thing.
¹³For the sacrifices of My offerings ^(BB)they sacrifice flesh and eat it,
^(BC)But the Lord does not accept them.
^(BD)Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.
They shall return to Egypt.

¹⁴“For^(BE) Israel has forgotten ^(BF)his Maker,
And has built ^[t]temples;
Judah also has multiplied ^(BG)fortified cities;
But ^(BH)I will send fire upon his cities,
And it shall devour his ^[u]palaces.”

Judgment of Israel’s Sin

9 Do^(BI) not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples,
For you have played the harlot against your God.
You have made love for ^(BJ)hire on every threshing floor.
²The threshing floor and the winepress
Shall not feed them,
And the new wine shall fail in her.

³They shall not dwell in ^(BK)the Lord’s land,
^(BL)But Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
And ^(BM)shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
⁴They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord,
Nor ^(BN)shall their ^(BO)sacrifices be pleasing to Him.
It shall be like bread of mourners to them;
All who eat it shall be defiled.
For their bread shall be for their own life;
It shall not come into the house of the Lord.

⁵What will you do in the appointed day,
And in the day of the feast of the Lord?
⁶For indeed they are gone because of destruction.
Egypt shall gather them up;
Memphis shall bury them.
^(BP)Nettles shall possess their valuables of silver;
Thorns shall be in their tents.

⁷The ^(BQ)days of punishment have come;
The days of recompense have come.
Israel knows!
The prophet is a ^(BR)fool,
^(BS)The spiritual man is insane,
Because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity.
⁸The ^(BT)watchman of Ephraim is with my God;
But the prophet is a ^[v]fowler’s snare in all his ways—
Enmity in the house of his God.
⁹^(BU)They are deeply corrupted,
As in the days of ^(BV)Gibeah.
He will remember their iniquity;
He will punish their sins.

¹⁰“I found Israel
Like grapes in the ^(BW)wilderness;
I saw your fathers
As the ^(BX)firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season.
But they went to ^(BY)Baal Peor,
And ^[w]separated themselves to that shame;
^(BZ)They became an abomination like the thing they loved.
¹¹As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird—
No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!
¹²Though they bring up their children,
Yet I will bereave them to the last man.
Yes, ^(CA)woe to them when I depart from them!
¹³Just ^(CB)as I saw Ephraim like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place,
So Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.”

¹⁴Give them, O Lord—
What will You give?
Give them ^(CC)a miscarrying womb
And dry breasts!

¹⁵“All their wickedness is in ^(CD)Gilgal,
For there I hated them.
Because of the evil of their deeds
I will drive them from My house;
I will love them no more.
^(CE)All their princes are rebellious.
¹⁶Ephraim is ^(CF)stricken,
Their root is dried up;
They shall bear no fruit.
Yes, were they to bear children,
I would kill the darlings of their womb.”

¹⁷My God will ^(CG)cast them away,
Because they did not obey Him;
And they shall be ^(CH)wanderers among the nations.

Footnotes

Hosea 6:1 Bandage
Hosea 6:5 Or the judgments on you
Hosea 6:6 Or faithfulness or loyalty
Hosea 6:7 Or Adam
Hosea 6:8 Lit. foot-tracked
Hosea 6:10 Spiritual adultery
Hosea 7:1 plunders
Hosea 7:2 Lit. do not say to
Hosea 7:5 Lit. with the heat of
Hosea 7:6 So with MT, Vg.; Syr., Tg. Their anger; LXX Ephraim
Hosea 7:11 Lit. heart
Hosea 7:14 So with MT, Tg.; Vg. thought upon; LXX slashed themselves for (cf. 1 Kin. 18:28)
Hosea 7:14 So with MT, Syr., Tg.; LXX omits They rebel against Me; Vg. They departed from Me
Hosea 7:16 Or upward
Hosea 8:1 ram’s horn, Heb. shophar
Hosea 8:5 Golden calf image
Hosea 8:5 Or has rejected you
Hosea 8:10 Or begin to diminish
Hosea 8:10 Or oracle or proclamation
Hosea 8:14 Or palaces
Hosea 8:14 Or citadels
Hosea 9:8 One who catches birds in a trap or snare
Hosea 9:10 Or dedicated

Hebrews 3

New King James Version

The Son Was Faithful

3 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, ²who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as ^(A)Moses also was faithful in all His house. ³For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as ^(B)He who built the house has more honor than the house. ⁴For every house is built by someone, but ^(C)He who built all things is God. ⁵^(D)And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as ^(E)a servant, ^(F)for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, ⁶but Christ as ^(G)a Son over His own house, ^(H)whose house we are ^(I)if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope ^[a]firm to the end.

Be Faithful^(J)

⁷Therefore, as ^(K)the Holy Spirit says:

^(L)“Today, if you will hear His voice,
⁸Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
In the day of trial in the wilderness,
⁹Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,
And saw My works forty years.
¹⁰Therefore I was angry with that generation,
And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they have not known My ways.’
¹¹So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

¹²Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; ¹³but ^[b]exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, ¹⁵while it is said:

^(M)“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

Failure of the Wilderness Wanderers

¹⁶^(N)For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? ¹⁷Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, ^(O)whose corpses fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸And ^(P)to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? ¹⁹So we see that they could not enter in because of ^(Q)unbelief.